China Denies It’s Detaining Up to One Million Muslims in Camps

BEIJING—China disputed allegations that it is holding as many as one million Muslim ethnic minorities in internment camps, instead calling the camps vocational schools in rare comments before a United Nations panel in Geneva.

A senior Chinese official told the U.N. panel Monday that such camps, referred to in Chinese government documents as “re-education centers,” were for “criminals involved only in minor offenses” to help them learn vocational skills and to reintegrate them into society.

He called the widely cited one million estimate “completely untrue” but declined to give an official Chinese figure for how many people are in the centers.